Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico (ICCU), Rome

SBN Antiquarian file

Name and coverage of file

The name of the file is SBN Antiquarian. It contains 140,300 records for the holdings of 175 of the about 800 SBN libraries cataloguing books printed between 1450 and 1830. The file is therefore a union catalogue of many Italian libraries.

Mode of cataloguing

At the moment the file is for the major part formed by book-in-hand records, since the file is a by-product of on line cataloguing in SBN. Since there are several retrospective projects in progress, records will be in future both book-in-hand catalogued and produced through retrocon activities. The latter records can be distinguished because the retrocon cataloguing level is stated.

Present/absent fields

Records vary from medium length to very detailed indeed. The latter contain fingerprints (012) and signatures. Uniform title (5–) appear only after strict editorial control. Author's names are marked as non sorting when occur at the beginning of the title proper. Names in 7– fields have author identification number in subfield $3, which is provisional until the Authority file will be operating fully in SBN. The alternative forms of names are also given in 79–. The printer's name is given in 710 because printing houses are considered as corporate bodies with the relator code $4. A “joint-author heading” is used for dual authorship. Authors names have cross references.

The records do not have subject indexing. The title proper may be abbreviated. The retrocon records have the language code of the title. The field 210 is not always complete because it depends on the presentation of the data in the publication.The field 899 is used to identify the SBN library holding the item. The printer's device is recorded in field 306. Provenance is sometimes indicated in field 300.

Treatment of multivolume works

Multivolume works are currently catalogued at two or at most three levels. Generally multivolume works are described in two forms: one describing the work as a whole but without indicating volumes, editions and publication dates, and the second level describing each volume on its own, indicating the edition statement, the publication year, the pagination.

The first level can also be conceived as containing information common to the main item, the second and subsequent levels as information relating to the separate units. In the HPB file automatic linking has not been achieved, so that you have to enter a second search either for the “parent” or for the “child” record. Indications on the full display help to achieve this second search.

Recommendations for searching

The easiest way of searching the file is by author and / or title. The search can successfully be restricted by place of publication and publication year.

Useful and sophisticated searches are on the normalised publication place and the printer's name.

Note that for historical purpose another useful method of searching is on imprint place and language code.

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